The Hourglass (22 page)

Luke kept trying to interrupt, but I wasn’t having it;
it wasn’t his turn to talk, it was mine. My turn to make him realize that he was going to pay for playing us against each other; stepping in closer to him I backed
him into
the
corner of the giant room. “You think Brooke and I want to hear your explanation?
Is that why you keep stammering? Neither
of us
give a shit about what you have to say, there is nothing that you could come up with that would make either one of us even remotely feel sorry for you. It is what it is Luke, you are a player. You had two amazing, beautiful, successful women who wanted you and instead of being a gentleman and choosing just one of us, you wanted to have your cake and eat it too.”

I stopped for a moment to gather my thoughts,
and Luke took that as his opportunity to pipe up. “Sav, you don’t understand, I
love
both of you.”

My eyes grew to the size of golf balls and a loud cackling laugh escaped my throat just as Brooke jumped back into the argument. “You love
both
of us? You have no idea what love is. You don’t lie and manipulate the people you love, Lucas. You don’t cheat on people you love and you sure as hell don’t make their lives miserable by turning best friends against each other. That is by no means the definition of love, my friend.”

Luke stood there;
having been told
that there was nothing he could say that was going to make this situation any better, but he chanced it anyway. “You’re right!” he roared. “You’re both right, I wanted the best of both worlds, I’m sorry.”

His body fell back
into the chair
and I
decided to let Luke plead
his case, knowing full well it
would
never change our opinion of him. “Savannah, you were my go to girl, the one constant thing besides work that I had in my life. I knew that every Friday night I could count on you to help me forget the stress of the job and get my weekend started.”

Sucking in a deep breath he forged on. “And Brooke, you were everything I wanted in a relationship.
The
perfect woman to take home to introduce to
my
family.” Running his fingers through his tousled hair,
he stood and began pacing, again. “Hell, is it so wrong of me to just wish the two of you were molded into one person?
That way I’d have the perfect woman.”

Looking to Brooke,
he went on. “Sweet, innocent and so willing to fall in love.” Then he looked back over at me. “And a damn goddess in the bedroom, yet still able to grab life by the horns and enjoy one hell of a crazy ride.”

I watched as Brooke rolled her eyes,
she grasped
the bottle of champagne that was chilling in the silver ice chest. Brooke
popped the cork and
took a swig straight from the bottle.
Lunging at her, Luke knocked it out of her hands and to the
floor,
letting the liquid pool and foam on the carpet. “Why are you drinking? You’re pregnant!”

I made a funny face, just now realizing that Brooke had yet to tell Luke it was all a sham just as she belly laughed. “Oh please, you think there’s any way I’d let your offspring grow inside of me?
You
must be crazy. It was just another way Savannah and I were getting back at you for everything you’ve done.”

I’m not sure if Luke was relieved or worse off
after
this realization, but the expression on his face led me to believe it was the latter of the two. “Don’t be upset Luke, I mean it would have been so much easier on the two of us if we could have just cloned you and split you in two, but I don’t think stem cell research is that advanced yet.”

Luke gaped at me as I turned his words back around and used them against him. “Oh and by the way, Hourglass thanks you for your generous donation of fifty grand, be sure and have the check to me Monday.”

Anger took hold of Luke’s face. “
Fifty grand, you expect me to come up with fifty
goddamn grand in twenty four hours?”

Caressing his cheek softly,
I smiled. “Of course I do, sell your Range Rover.
Hell, sell your body for all I care. All I know is come Monday morning there damn well better be a check in the amount of fifty thousand dollars made out to Hourglass Charity Auction sitting on my desk.” I popped his cheek twice with my hand. “Understood?”

His head hung. “Yeah.”

I grabbed
Brooke’s hand
and
led the way out of the hotel room, leaving Luke Wellington to wallow in his own self-loathing and to think about the consequences that his actions were going to have on his future dating life.

Monday morning,
Brooke and I rode together into the office and rushed out of the elevator, straight into my office. Stopping dead in our tracks I lifted the crisp white Nike envelope off of my desk, ripping it open, out fell a light blue personal check from the operating account of Lucas A. Wellington in the amount of fifty thousand dollars. Brooke and I jumped up and down in excitement; Monica was going to be thrilled with this donation. Now we just had to pray that his check didn’t bounce.

“Ladies, I hate to interrupt you from whatever it is you are doing bouncing around this office, but Monica would like to see you both, right now.”

We glanced at Monica’s assistant and then back at each other and Brooke whispered. “I don’t think I can feel my legs.”

Gripping her shoulders,
I shook them. “We’re fine, I’m sure she’s furious at our performance, but we just got her the biggest donation in auction history, there’s no way she’s going to fire us.”
I turned
on my heels
and
followed Monica’s assistant, Brooke following me.

When we arrived in her office, Monica’s
back was to us,
and her shoulders were rigid as she banged away on her computer. I cleared my throat. “You wanted to see us?” I asked, trying not to sound worried.

Her chair
turned
faster than a category five hurricane,
and then
she stood, slamming both hands down on to her desk.
The vein in her forehead throbbed. “What in the hell was that ridiculous fiasco of a show the two of you put on Saturday night? I should fire you both right now for not only embarrassing me, but embarrassing Hourglass, right along with our biggest sponsor, Nike.” Brooke tried to chime in, but there was no stopping Monica when she was on a roll. Whipping her finger into the air she stopped Brooke. “Shut up, both of you. I don’t want an explanation.
In fact I don’t even want to see your faces.”

Monica closed her eyes momentarily, taking in a deep breath, then releasing it as she did her best to calm herself down before she
sat back down in her oversized office chair and smoothed her jet black pencil skirt. Between gritted teeth,
she went on. “Get out of my office, get out of this building,
and
get out of this damn town, because if I as much as even hear either one of your names
again,
I’m going to kill you both. Consider yourselves on a week-long, unpaid leave of absence. I need time to figure out what I’m going to do with the both of you.”

Brooke’s eyes were utterly terrified when she glanced over at me, only becoming worse when she saw that my confidence was absent as well.

Trembling, I shuffled
up
to
Monica’s desk
and
placed the check from Luke in front of her, then
turned
and beelined
for the door before
she
changed her mind and fired the both of us on the spot.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Brooke

AS WE BOARDED
the opulent and elegant cruise ship in New Orleans, I couldn’t help but worry about my job. Everything I‘d spent years working toward, was teetering on a tight rope. “Are you sure she isn’t going to fire us?” I asked, allowing my nerves to show.

“Oh Brooke, stop worrying so much. Is she pissed?
Hell,
yeah. But we just handed her a check for fifty thousand dollars and
we’re
leaving town like she asked. She has to blow off some steam, but ultimately we are the best in our field and she wants the best,”
came
Savannah’s
confident
response
as she strolled onto the gangway.
Savannah crossed through the entryway onto the ship, pausing long enough to take in the colored glass and ornate furnishing,
attracting plenty of male attention in her short white shorts and hot pink camisole top.

“Here, drink this,” Savannah instructed as she thrust a colorful fruity frozen dink into my hand.
“And when you’re done,
wave that little plastic card in your hand and order another. Keep doing that until you forget Hourglass and Monica Vincent,”

With a smile I did as instructed and before long,
we had set sail and were enjoying our
vacation on the sea as we headed
for
Mexico.

The next night we both got all dolled up and made our way to the main dining room. Taking a seat at our round table that seated eight,
it was clear we
discovered ourselves
in a mix of people. Across from us an old couple
was
celebrating their seventy-fifth wedding anniversary. The very thought of spending seventy-five years with a man and still look that
much
in love was beautiful. Also with us was a newlywed couple, two girlfriends
partying after
a divorce, and us,
rejoicing in
the
destruction
of Lucas Wellington and the fact we kept our jobs. For now.

“Stop right now,” Savannah grumbled in my ear.

“What?” I asked,
confused.

“That.
I see you thinking. I see you worrying.” Savannah
waved
her hand in the air
to
signal a bartender. “Shots, we need four shots, whatever the house special is for the night please.”
She flashed a big smile at the guy that guaranteed us some strong glasses of liquid bliss.

By the time we were in the nightclub,
I was loose and free, dancing without a care in the world, and enjoying every second of it. I wasn’t ready for new strings to tie me down, and I was thinking Savannah was on to something with her anti-relationship motto.

As two large hands wrapped around me and gripped me by my hips I felt my body sway with him to the music, keeping myself cradled within his hips. Savannah was mid spin when she spotted whoever had taken hold of me,
and the mischief in her eyes told me I wouldn’t be disappointed. As his hands raked down my slinky skin-tight dress I twisted so that I could face him and wrap my arms around his neck. Looking up at eyes
the color of ice,
I couldn’t help but think how intoxicatingly handsome he was. Oh yeah, I could work with this.